Henry Goes to Work for Phoebe Hearst

Henry (center right) takes a balloon ride

"Mrs. Phoebe Hearst wrote to ask me to go to Mexico for her after studying Spanish in San Francisco." Mrs. Hearst had sent Henry to San Francisco to learn Spanish with the intention that in 3 months she would send him to Mexico to bring back plants and trees for her property. After 18 months, instead of heading for Mexico, Hearst sent Henry to Sonoma to put a 250 acre vineyard in shape. Arriving in October, he sized up the watershed and had the creek cleaned out below a $7,000 bridge. This precaution saved the bridge from a storm that took out both the Glen Ellen and Eldridge bridges above it.

In the vineyard, he found two blocks of vines trimmed short when they should have been trimmed long. By staking these vines, Henry was able to double the crop the first year. Also, the first winter he grafted all the Rupestris St. George roots that had been missed when the vineyard was grafted, thus trebling the crop the second year.

During these years, Henry continued his civic leadership. He was a trustee of the district grammar school and Sonoma City Union High School which was just being formed. He was a member of the Sonoma County Republican Central Committee. The paper called him the best orator in Sonoma City for the "after dinner" speeches he gave.

He also went through the vice grand chair in the Odd Fellows. Odd Fellows day being April 26, and his birthday being April 24, he gave a party to which fifty people from Sonoma City were invited. The newspaper said "it was the best party ever given in Sonoma Valley and a bachelor gave it!" Lieutenant Governor Warren Porter of Watsonville told him, "Dakin, I think you made a mistake ever going to work for Mrs. Hearst. You could have had anything you wanted in Santa Cruz."

Then came the earthquake in 1906 and in 1907 Henry left for Mexico.